UFC, One FC Have Become ‘A Global Duopoly,’ Says One FC CEO

This Friday,
One Fighting Championship will stage its eighth event, One
FC 8 “Kings and Champions,” at Singapore Indoor Stadium. One FC
CEO Victor Cui recently spoke with Sherdog.com about the
organization’s first 18 months of existence, how he feels his
company matches up with the UFC, and what’s coming up next.

Sherdog.com: Could you tell us about what’s coming up for
One FC this year? Victor Cui: Things are fantastic.
Things are just moving so fast, I’m having problems keeping up with
it. We’ve got new blue-chip sponsors coming on board. Our last
event in February had Tune Talk, which is one of the largest telcos
in Asia. We’ve launched an entire amateur series in Malaysia, with
12 events run by Tune Talk in partnership with One FC. It’s really
promoting awareness and education at the amateur level, of the
opportunities to grow the sport there. We have a huge partnership
with Sony. We are sponsored by “Iron Man 3.” It’s just really big
brands that are coming on-board with us right now, and that’s
exciting, but it’s difficult to keep up because I’m traveling all
over the place.

Luckily, we just hired a new senior vice-president and head of
commercial partnerships named Kwong Wai Victor Chu. He’s probably,
without a doubt, in all my years of experience here in Asia, one of
the best guys when it comes to closing business deals in sports.
He’s probably closed over $45 million worth of deals in the last
couple of years with every major corporation you can think of. He’s
one of the most sought-after guys in Asia for sports. His rolodex
is unbelievable. He’s worked with IMG, ESPN, the NBA -- his
pedigree is just fantastic. I’m really excited to have him
on-board.

What’s happening is our television broadcast has just exploded
around the world. We’re probably in over 70 countries live right
now, for our April 5 show, and that’s growing. For the first time,
we’ll be live in Asia on Star Sports to 20 new countries, and
that’s 500 million potential viewers. You add global broadcasters
and you’re looking at our April 5 being in front of over 600
million people. On a Friday night here in Asia, there is no other
live sport on Star Sports across Asia other than One FC. It means
everybody going out Friday night, every pub, every club you go to
that’s showing sports on their television screen, the only thing
they’re gonna see is One FC.

Sherdog.com: What other locations are you eying for events
this year? Cui: We’ve got 12 events scheduled for this
year, and then 24 in 2014. That’s gonna take us to China, India,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Sherdog.com: It’s been about 18 months since the first One
FC show. What’s been unexpected or surprising to you in this first
year and a half? Cui: We’re definitely way ahead of
where I thought we would be at this point. The biggest surprise to
me is how quickly we’re selling out stadiums, and the new sponsors
that have come on-board. Frankly, the level of sponsors we’ve got
now, I wasn’t expecting that for at least another year. Even if you
look at UFC, they don’t have a major telco. These are real big,
blue-chip companies that have come on-board with us here and have
come on very early. That’s great news for us, and I was surprised
by it.

The other challenge is that we’ve started going to bigger and
bigger venues. The last time we were in Manila, for example, we
were in a 16,000-seat stadium. Now, we’re moving to a 20,000-seat
stadium. The challenge has been in finding venues that are big
enough for us now, because infrastructure is a little bit lagging
in Asia, and there aren’t that many fantastic stadiums in every
major city. A lot of the stadiums are 30, 40 years old, so those
come with additional challenges.

Sherdog.com: You mentioned that you’re flying all over the
place. Are you securing sponsorships, scouting talent -- what are
you spending your time on these days? Cui: Matt Hume looks
after all of our fighter recruitment, matchmaking and talent, so he
takes the lead on all of that. My travel has mostly been with
sponsors and our new television partners. A year and a half ago, we
closed a 10-year deal with ESPN Star Sports, so we were focused on
that. But, when other broadcasters around the world started seeing
the show that we were putting together, we started getting a lot of
interest, and that’s why, in the span of half a year, we’ve got 70
countries around the world showing our content. I really wasn’t
expecting to have our show in Brazil and France and Germany and
Canada and Africa, all these other places, so quickly. It’s a good
problem to have, but it means we need to hire a few more people to
look after that side of the business.

Sherdog.com: You mentioned Matt Hume, your
matchmaker and VP of operations. Can you talk about what he does
for One FC? Cui: Matt Hume is a
rock star. He has an unbelievable reputation. He basically created
MMA in Japan, with the rules and the officials. When he’s looking
at a fighter, he’s looking at them from a perspective that nobody
else can, because he can see diamonds in the rough. I believe his
gym [AMC
Pankration] is the oldest MMA gym in North America, and I
believe he’s produced more champions than anybody else, whether you
look at guys like Bibiano
Fernandes to Demetrious
Johnson. He knows what he’s doing and he’s very well-respected
for that.

I think you’ve seen a significant increase in the quality of our
matchmaking and the level of fights, and that’s because of what
he’s done. He calls a gym owner and talks to them, and there’s
immediately a level of trust and understanding, because the gym
owner knows they’re working with one of the most respected guys in
the sport. There’s nobody that has anything bad to say about Matt
Hume, as a coach, as an official, as a champion of growing the
sport of MMA. So, he’s been fantastic, and he’s a really important
part of the company.

Sherdog.com: What’s been the biggest change in One FC since
its inception? Cui: The biggest change, I would say,
that has emerged in the last year and a half is what I really feel
is the emergence of a global duopoly of East versus West. You’ve
got UFC in the West, One FC as the biggest in the East. You see the
storyline of East versus West play out in almost every industry you
can think of, from Apple versus Samsung, YouTube versus Youku,
Twitter versus Weibo, Facebook versus Renren. If you compare, UFC
has got a 90-percent market share in the states; we’ve got a
90-percent market share in Asia. UFC is 90-percent Caucasian,
10-percent non-Caucasian; we’re 90-percent Asian, 10-percent
non-Asian. We’re filling the biggest stadiums. We’ve got the
biggest gates, biggest attendance. We have a television reach of
over 600 million viewers. We’ve got fantastic blue-chip sponsors on
board, and UFC has the best sponsors on board.